Worst Support ever

I bought the HTC Vive a few months ago. On 6th May I updated the firmware of the lighthouses. As result, one of the lighthouse did not start anymore at all. All trials to solve this as found in the forums and by the support were not successful. I wonder why HTC is not able to implement a firmware update which is working or at least to reset the hardware?

Therefore HTC asked me to send the lighthouse to their repair center. I did so and got the lighthouse 2 weeks later back. Result: The lighthouse is not working, this error is shown "Lighthouse has a manufactoring error". Furthermore they did not update the lighthouse to the newest firmware in their repaircenter (?!).

I contacted the support again and asked why they do not test their hardware before the send it back. I never got an answer to this question. They sent me again a UPS Ticket and I sent the lighthouse again to the HTC repair center. Now I got it back, and guess what? Same result: Lighthouse is not working, same error as above and again old firmware.

I can hardly imagine that HTC provides such a low quality: Twice NOT testing a repaired lighthouse, Twice not upgrading the firmware. The only option left is that HTC has not interest at all to do repairs and don't care when their hardware is not working, even HTC made it with their firmware unusable.

Re: Worst Support ever

I'm feeling your pain. I have emailed several times, tried the so called "live help" to no avail. I have a dead wall emitter and I am regretting purchasing this device so freaking much. This is going to kill this company if it hasn't already. I cannot recommend a product that 1) failed within months of install, 2) has non-existent customer service/ support. Pretty much totally ripped off.

Re: Worst Support ever

Update, after contacting VIVE customer service through their proprietary portal within this website, I received a RMA for my bad device. I still feel, however, that it wasn't very clear as to how to get said support.

Re: Worst Support ever

after 2.5 monhts and sending in my lighthouse 3 times, I finally got a lighthouse working.

However, HTC again did not manage to send a lighthouse with the current firmware, I have no idea who or what is working the support centers. I will not updated the firmware, because this started all the troubles.

Considering this trouble and that support questions never got answered about the partly chaotic settings/gui, I would not buy again a HTC Vive.

Re: Worst Support ever

Thank you for your posts. I'd like to elaborate on a couple of things that will hopefully help you. Regarding the firmware: through our tests and research we've determined that despite a common misconception, the firmware does not cause any problems itself. However, it does detect hardware failures in the base station and the original firmware versions from 2016 had a higher fault tolerance than the current version, and essentially they did not properly detect failing rotors. This was remedied later, leading to the false conclusion that the firmware was causing the failure, when in fact it was actually just detecting the failure.

There have been a number of revisions of the firmware for Vive and SteamVR updates. We recommend using the latest version in all cases.

Since the firmware on the base station you received was older, I would surmise that you received a replacement unit rather than having the device you sent in repaired.

Secondly, you also mentioned questions about "chaotic settings/gui". I'd be happy to answer any questions you have either here, or you can PM me if you'd prefer.

Thank you,

-John C

"Welcome to the desert of the real."

If your base station has a Fault 02/03 error or a red light or both, the ONLY solution is to contact our support on vive.com and set up an RMA. There is no user fix for this issue.

Re: Worst Support ever

I fully understand your grief and annoyance with HTC support. As your title reads, it really is the worst support ever. Long response times for email (if they get back to you at all), wasting customer time, charging for telephone support, saying you'll get a call back and a call never comes, expecting the customer to spend so much of their personal time identifying the problem etc.

My unit stopped working within 3 months of light use and encountered all the issues I mentioned above and more. Forum link here if you're interested to read and relate to my experience:

I myself have had an ongoing issue with them since June 2016 and currently I have sent a formal letter to HTC headquarters in the UK with a deadline date to respond, after which I will be filing legal action to get back my money back from these scam artists which is within the next couple of days - although I am not expecting a response as customer service and satisfaction is unimportant to HTC, but sucking money from your pockets and wasting your time is their number 1 priority from my experience.

I have filed various formal complaints regarding the outrageous service, no one complaint was dealt with. A senior manager there - Mostafa I think his name was - told me when I asked why none of my complaints were addressed that HTC couldn't be expected to deal with every customer complaint across Europe. I was absolutely shocked by this response to say the least, and it says everything about their standard of customer service.

Re: Worst Support ever

@SynthesisMeanwhile all my HTC devices ask for a driver update. I did do nothing since the last update nightmare. What you recommend? Should I update drivers for the lighthouses and controls and headset? Or should I not. When I update and again nothing is working, what should I do? Meanwhile the one year guarantuee is over.

Re: Worst Support ever

You definitely should. If there are any problems it will reveal them and they can get an RMA set up if need.

Generally the only situation in which an update reveals a mechanical problem is with the base stations. I've never seen a firmware update negatively effect any other piece of hardware except in cases when it was done incorrectly (Removing the cable during install for example.)

Thank you,

-John C

"Welcome to the desert of the real."

If your base station has a Fault 02/03 error or a red light or both, the ONLY solution is to contact our support on vive.com and set up an RMA. There is no user fix for this issue.